Lugar and Obama Urge Destruction of Conventional Weapons Stockpiles

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

DONETSK, Ukraine – U.S. Senators Dick Lugar (R-IN) and Barack Obama
(D-IL) called for the immediate destruction of 15,000 tons of ammunition,
400,000 small arms and light weapons, and 1,000 man-portable air defense
systems (MANPADS) or shoulder missile launchers that are often sought by
terrorists.

Lugar and Obama toured the Donetsk State Chemical
Production Plant, a conventional weapons destruction facility where the
U.S. has taken the lead in a three-year NATO program to destroy the
weapons. Another 117,000 tons of ammunition and 1.1 million small arms and
light weapons are slated for destruction within 12 years.

So far,
the U.S. has contributed $2.1 million to the project, and Austria,
Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia,
Switzerland, and the United Kingdom have contributed $1.2 million.

While the destruction is ready to begin, the Ukrainian Rada
(parliament) first must pass a law exempting the foreign assistance from
taxation. Lugar and Obama discussed this issue with Rada Speaker Volodymyr
Lytvyn, Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko and President Viktor Yushchenko
in meetings yesterday. All three leaders indicated they would promote
action before the March 2006 parliamentary elections.

The visit
underscores the importance of legislation Lugar and Obama have authored
that would commit additional U.S. resources and expand authorities in
cooperative threat reduction of conventional weapons around the world. The
bill is part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Bill that is pending
in the Senate and will be introduced as a free-standing bill by the
senators this fall.

“We discussed MANPADS, landmines and other
very highly dangerous explosives. Ukraine has huge stockpiles leftover
from previous times that are dangerous to people of this country as well
as the possibility for proliferation to other countries,” Lugar said. “We
are working to obtain funds to secure and destroy these weapons in
cooperative threat reduction. We are encouraging the U.S. and Ukraine to
work together and to obtain more funds. We came here to see the problem
and the solution with our own eyes.”

By the late 1980’s, 75
percent of all Ukraine’s industrial capacity was used to produce Soviet
weaponry, including strategic weapons. In June 1996, the Nunn-Lugar
Cooperative Threat Reduction program successfully achieved the removal of
all 1,240 deployed SS-19 and SS-24 strategic nuclear warheads from
Ukraine.

“Vast stocks of conventional munitions and military
supplies have accumulated in Ukraine. Some of this stockpile dates from
World War I and II, yet most dates from Cold War buildup and the stocks
left behind by Soviet withdrawals from East Germany, the Czech Republic,
Hungry and Poland,” Obama said. “We need to eliminate these stockpiles for
the safety of the Ukrainian people and people around world, by keeping
them out of conflicts around the world.”

Estimates by the NATO
Maintenance and Supply Agency suggest a significant proliferation and
public safety threat from the 7 million small arms and light weapons and 2
million tons of conventional ammunition stored in more than 80 depots
across Ukraine. These depots were never designed to hold such large
stockpiles and remain vulnerable to those seeking such weapons or their
components, or to spontaneous detonation in some of the older and larger
ammunition stockpiles.

In March, the Foreign Relations Committee
added the Lugar Disarmament Initiative (LDI) to the Foreign Affairs
Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007. The LDI is modeled on
the original Nunn-Lugar Act. Its purpose is to provide the Department of
State with a focused response to the threat posed by vulnerable stockpiles
of conventional weapons around the world, including tactical missiles and
MANPADS. Such missile systems could be used by terrorists to attack
commercial airliners, military installations and government facilities in
the U.S. and abroad. Reports suggest that Al Qaeda has attempted to
acquire these kinds of weapons. In addition, unsecured conventional
weapons stockpiles are a major obstacle to peace, reconstruction and
economic development in regions suffering from instability.

This
bill declares it to be the policy of the United States to seek out surplus
and unguarded stocks of conventional armaments, including small arms and
light weapons, and tactical missile systems for elimination or
safeguarding. It authorizes the Department of State to carry out an
accelerated global effort to destroy such weapons and to cooperate with
allies and international organizations when possible. The Secretary of
State is charged with devising a strategy for prioritizing, on a
country-by-country basis, the obligation of funds in a global program of
conventional arms elimination. Lastly, the Secretary is required to unify
program planning, coordination and implementation of the strategy into one
office at the State Department and to request a budget commensurate with
the risk posed by these weapons.

During the trip, the senators
have inspected a nuclear warhead storage facility and missile destruction
facility in Russia and biological laboratories in Russia and Ukraine. On
Thursday, they will review sea interdiction exercises on the Caspian Sea
in Azerbaijan.

In 1991, Senator Lugar (R-IN) and former Senator
Sam Nunn (D-GA) authored the Nunn-Lugar Act, which established the
Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. This program has provided U.S.
funding and expertise to help the former Soviet Union safeguard and
dismantle its enormous stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons, related materials, and delivery systems. In 1997, Lugar and Nunn
were joined by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) in introducing the Defense
Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act, which expanded Nunn-Lugar
authorities in the former Soviet Union and provided WMD expertise to first
responders in American cities. In 2003, Congress adopted the Nunn-Lugar
Expansion Act, which authorized the Nunn-Lugar program to operate outside
the former Soviet Union to address proliferation threats. In October 2004,
Nunn-Lugar funds were used for the first time outside of the former Soviet
Union to secure chemical weapons in Albania, under a Lugar-led expansion
of the program.

Beyond the scorecard’s nuclear elimination, the Nunn-Lugar program
secures and destroys chemical weapons, and works to reemploy scientists
and facilities related to biological weapons in peaceful research
initiatives. The International Science and Technology Centers, of which
the United States is the leading sponsor, have engaged 58,000 former
weapons scientists in peaceful work. The International Proliferation
Prevention Program has funded 750 projects involving 14,000 former weapons
scientists and created some 580 new peaceful high-tech jobs. Ukraine,
Belarus and Kazakhstan are nuclear weapons free as a result of cooperative
efforts under the Nunn-Lugar program. They otherwise would be the world’s
the third, forth and eighth largest nuclear weapons powers, respectively.